Oct. 31st, 2011

FYI

Oct. 31st, 2011 10:30 pm
ricardienne: (Default)
At line 5 ff. the poet bids his addressee circulate along the benches of a ship and drink deeply: he gives as a reason the company's inability to remain sober in this spell of guard-duty.

Should we conclude that Archilochus sang this song for the first time while on guard by a beached ship? If so, I am tempted to suggest that the reason we have no more of the song is that the singer's throat was cut by a Thracian guerrilla: for real guard-duty is not effective if punctuated by drunken song.
--E.L. Bowie, "Early Greek Elegy, Symposium, and Public Festival." JHS 106. p. 16


(To be fair, there is no reason why soldiers on watch wouldn't *sing* songs about being drunk while on watch, even if they weren't actually drinking, is there?)

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